Turkish president seeks to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that he will work to arrange a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Source: Erdoğan during a press conference, as quoted by Turkish news agency Anadolu and reported by European Pravda
Details: Commenting on the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Erdoğan said that he had met with the Ukrainian delegation the day before and "also had a conversation with the esteemed Vladimir Putin, and we asked them for their support".
"We will try to find out whether we can bring these leaders (Putin and Zelenskyy) together in Istanbul through negotiations with Mr Putin and Mr Trump, possibly as early as this week," Erdoğan said.
Initially, the news reported that Erdoğan wanted to bring Putin and US President Donald Trump together in Istanbul, due to the vagueness of the Turkish leader's quote. Later, Erdoğan's office issued a clarification.
Background:
- On 23 July, a third round of peace talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in Istanbul. The first round of talks was held in Istanbul on 16 May this year, and the second on 2 June.
- At a briefing following the talks, Oleksandr Bevz, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said that the Ukrainian side had once again proposed holding a leaders’ meeting in August.
- Ukraine had previously proposed holding a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin with the participation of Erdoğan and possibly Trump. The Turkish side supports this idea.
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